Constantly, in the background and in the headlines both parties have sought to erode our individual liberty.

I can't vote Democrat because they want to collapse the system and take away my right to defend myself.

I can't vote for Republicans because they want to collapse the system and take away women's rights and disenfranchise minorities.

This idea that both parties are equally awful is a load of crap. It stymies progress by breeding apathy. Both parties have some corruption and other faults, but they're far from equal. It does matter which side gets the upper hand.

You're right that it is uncertain whether the Dems can fix the economy, but it's crystal clear which party's ideology fucked it up. And, if anything, their ideology has gone even further into the weeds than it was then. When x (reducing taxes on the rich, deregulation, reduction of social services, reduction of education funding, crippling of unions) not only fails to fix things, but backfires spectacularly, the solution is not more x. I'll gladly choose the "maybe" over certain failure.

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But I digress....If you all think that your party is the bestest most compassionate party that ever walked the face of the earth and that they truly only have YOUR best interest at heart...I gotta ask,

Did you bring enough cool-aid for the whole class?

Just who are these people who believe that their "party is the bestest most compassionate party that ever walked the face of the earth"? Even granting that this was obvious hyperbole, given the rampant disenchantment within both parties, it looks to me like you're criticising straw men.

And if you really believe that either party actually wants to collapse the system, or that the Dem's (currently rather subdued) favoring of what is really very limited and sane gun regulation amounts to them wanting to take away your right to defend yourself, then maybe it's you who needs to lay off the cool aid. You seem to be taking a more-or-less neutral position. But rather than rejecting partisan bullshit all around, you seem to have bought in to the delusional nonsense from BOTH sides. Neutral positions are not always rational positions.

p.s. I agree that the two-party system sucks. But unless we move away from first-past-the-post voting, which seems highly unlikely at present, we're stuck with it and should try to deal with it the best we can.

Under Bill Clinton we enjoyed an economic boom but he installed the "don't ask don't tell" policy.

? What's wrong with that? It was an improvement over the prior policy which was to actively investigate whether military personnel were homosexual. DADT was imperfect, but it was at least a step in the right direction.

Yep. It was a piss-poor solution, but it was about the best that could be accomplished in the political climate of the time. Sometimes it's better to do what little you can rather than holding out for unattainable perfection and accomplishing nothing.

When something politic happens I enjoy reading Liberal Logic 101's responses, even if they have disabled commenting, but it seems they don't like being shown for stupid, ignorant and bigoted fools. In fact, I found it has been lying have been more and more ridiculous as of late. Their reaction to this is pretty pathetic:

Apparently Bill Clinton is now a rapist and not only that, but a rapist of multiple women. I thought all he was caught of was adultery?

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“It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet” - Miyamoto MusashiWarning: I occassionally forget to proofread my posts to spot typos or to spot poor editing.

Politico editors have removed David Catanese from coverage of Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) following the reporter's defense of the congressman's comments about victims of "legitimate rape" not getting pregnant because their bodies will "shut that whole thing down."

John Harris, editor-in-chief of Politico, said in a staff memo on Monday that Catanese "crossed a line a reporter shouldn't cross on Twitter when he seemed to weigh in on the merits of Todd Akin's comments -- especially in a way many people, including many POLITICO colleagues, understandably found offensive."

"Dave's tweets on Akin created a distraction to his own work, and to the newsroom as a whole," Harris continued. "They also made himself part of the story, requiring us for now to remove him from Akin coverage."

On Monday morning, Catanese returned to Twitter and addressed the controversy in which he had embroiled himself around midnight the day before. "Bad idea trying to have nuanced conversation on highly charged issue on here," he wrote. "Did not intend to take a side. Lesson learned."

I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being'

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You see, what I said was, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” But what I meant to say was, “I am a worthless, moronic sack of shit and an utterly irredeemable human being who needs to shut up and go away forever.”

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But if you actually go back and look at the remarks closely, you’ll see that what I was actually trying to convey in my statement was that

(1) I am a big fucking idiot,

(2) I am a nauseating slug of a human being who doesn’t deserve to live, and

(3) I am essentially everything that’s wrong with this country and with humanity in general.

Honestly, that’s all I was trying to get across there. It was a simple misunderstanding, really.

It’s funny, because, in my head, I remember thinking very vividly, “I, Rep. Todd Akin, am a bigoted jackass who probably should not be alive, let alone in political office. People need to know what a terrible person I am so they will then remember to punch me in the face anytime they get the chance.” But when I opened my mouth and tried to articulate that thought, somehow I blurted out the thing about rape instead of just saying, in plain English, that I am awful, just purely and incontrovertibly awful.

....and there's more. But aside from that, more than anything, I laughed at his instantaneous about-face.

Couldn't even stand true to his own words.

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"...but on a lighter note, demons were driven from a pig today in Gloucester." Bill Bailey

It's funny that Republicans are coming down so hard on this guy, because his "theory" about rape and pregnancy is actually pretty common in pro-life circles, I know I've seen it before.

One source is a doctor named Jack Wilkie, who served as head of the National Right to Life Committee for over ten years. Surprise, surprise! He was an official campaign surrogate for Mitt Romney in 2008, and has endorsed the Republican nominee again this year:

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US election: Mitt Romney met Todd Akin doctor John Willke during 2012 campaignMitt Romney met John Willke, the doctor credited with popularising Todd Akin’s controversial views on rape and abortion, during the current election campaign and told him they agreed on “almost everything,” Dr Willke said.

The republican philosophy is "every man for himself, and if you aren't rich, blame the people below you". Deregulate the corporations so they can do whatever they want, give the rich and powerful more riches and more power, control the information people get so they think that they will benefit from this.

Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. Our quality of life plummets as we pay for their tax breaks out of our pockets and in lost services. For the wealthy, gated communities with private police, water and fire services. For the rest of us, more pollution, more contaminated food, more health problems, more bridges collapsing, more natural disasters with no assistance. All while making everyday life intolerable with draconian laws that control our personal decisions.

Is there a long-term vision of what this country will look like after a few decades of this de-volution? Seems like facist dictatorship is right around the corner. North Korea with junk food and pretty shopping malls. Cuba, with no health care or education and more rich people. The former Soviet Union, well, now.

It's funny that Republicans are coming down so hard on this guy, because his "theory" about rape and pregnancy is actually pretty common in pro-life circles, I know I've seen it before.

For the GOP, I guess Akin's real crime (besides using the word "legitimate"), was to talk about these things out in public, rather than saying it only to pro-life audiences...

Exactly this. Virtually every Republican position runs on a thinly-veiled platform of hate that's not to be publicly acknowledged.

It's not that birthers are racist, they're just skeptical and very concerned about upholding the Constitution.

It's not that they think only promiscuous sluts get abortions and should instead get what they deserve, they just lose sleep over clusters of cells.

It's not that they think poor people are lazy, disgusting leeches who should just crawl into holes and wither away, they are just worried that our corporate overlords may not be getting as many millions as they rightfully deserve - it might incentivize becoming poor!

It's not that the good Republican Christians want to force their beliefs down your sinful, blaspheming throat, it's just that they want to remind everyone how controversial evolution is, which should warrant teaching both sides. You know, the one side that says that Jesus died for your sins (historical fact!!) and the other that says that evolution is just a theory of dogs giving birth to giraffes that was made up by Darwin.

It's not that they think gays shouldn't have rights, it's just that they really get hung up on semantics when it comes to the official definition of marriage as clearly laid out in the Bible (*snicker*)!

It seems to be more of a defense mechanism to keep themselves from coming to terms with their hate-filled agenda rather than an attempt to fool anybody. From their standpoint it doesn't matter if it is true or not - what matters is that it's rude to point out. Terms like racist or homophobe or misogynist aren't labels that accurately reflect behavior and perspective, but are instead propaganda measures employed by the politically-correct left to dehumanize well-meaning Americans. To them, truth is simply whatever feels right.

Promiscuous sluts are unmarried women who have sex with men, so why don't men just stop having sex with unmarried women? No more abortions. Problem solved. I mean if they really care about saving the sweet little fertilized eggs, it's a small sacrifice to make.

And from now on, I expect the birthers to demand every official document relating to the life of every potential presidential candidate: birth records, tax records, school records, medical records, therapist's notes, and that diary they kept when they were teenagers. I'm holding my breath waiting for them to ask Gov. Romney for all that.

And if welfare recipients have to submit drug tests and endure all kinds of personal indignities to get their few hundred bucks a month, every CEO whose multi-million dollar company gets a government contract, a business loan, a farm subsidy or a tax break has to do the same.

And folks who don't believe in global warming or evolution will have to wear a special bracelet that says: No Science, Please. Allergic!. They will not be allowed to use computers, cars, phones, flush toilets or synthetic fabrics. All modern medicine will be kept away from them. Just helping them stick to their principles.

And Hindus, Muslims, Wiccans, Scientologists, polygamists and Santeros will decide whether or not hetero Christian marriages will be recognized by the state. That is only fair, if Christians want to weigh in on whether gays can marry.

I read yesterday that Georgia is now considered a swing state. Anyway my brother and sister-in-law live in St. Charles, Missouri; I don't know the political demograph of that city but I know my brother is a Democrat and his wife is an Independent; and they are both atheists.